Velo Dog

I forget it every year: From spring through late summer here, we get fierce winds almost every afternoon, sometimes starting as early as 10:30 or 11 a.m. So I'm sitting home at 8:30, thinking the eight miles in to the coffee place would be a nice way to start the day. It's an easy ride along the river, drops about 500 feet, not much traffic, and we're finally getting some nice weather.
Now it's 10:30, I'm on the coffeehouse deck with my netbook, and TWO MINUTES AGO the wind picked up to about 30, straight into my face all the way home. It's a half-hour in, 1:20 to 1:30 home, grunting all the way....Maybe I'll just sit here, have my wife pick me up on her way home..

JamieElenbaas

Cry me a river. If you didn't ride in the wind in Chicago, you wouldn't ride... HTFU

volosong

I hear ya. We get some pretty brutal winds here in the Antelope Valley. Seems to blow all the time, day and night. Only variable is how far over the trees bend. It can be nice too. The other week on my favorite loop, I was considering turning around while I was trying to get up over the one hill on the route. I kept telling myself what a sweet ride it will be when I get over the hill and pick up Elizabeth Lake Road. It took ten minutes longer to get up the hill than normal, because of the wind. This is just a short 2-mile hill that only rises about 700 feet. I think it is classified as a category 4 climb, so nothing to write home about. Glad I stuck it out because when I hit Elizabeth Lake Road, I was really able to truck along, maintaining speeds in the mid-high 30's, topping out at 42. It's a nice 7-mile run that is flat or slightly downhill and usually with that stiff breeze pushing me. I was actually able to make up eight of the ten lost minutes I lost going over Godde Hill.

Yeah, wind sux. We just got to get out of the house earlier in the day to ride.

Rick@OCRR

I've been hitting a lot of wind recently too (Anza-Borrego, Hwy 39 esp.) but I just try to tell myself that it's good training to push into the wind, kind of like a sustained climb, and try to stay positive and out of the "wind sux" frame of mind.

Actually, I find gusty cross-winds more dangerous and annoying than headwinds anymore. But whatever, wind happens so I might as well just deal with it. Complaining isn't going to make it go away.

Rick / OCRR

trackhub

Since we're on a weather rant: Last spring in the Boston area, we were having sunny days, with temps in the 70s and some 80s by now. Not so this year. Nope, back to normal this year. Cloudy, windy, (lots of "plastic trash cans in the street" days) with rain, sometimes heavy, other times an annoying cold drizzle. The forecast for next week is for rain, beginning on Sunday, and probably not stopping until Thursday at the earliest.

Of course, everything is relative. We're not being flooded out by the Mississippi river here, and entire towns have not been erased by endless tornadoes. Not earthquakes or Tsunamis either. So yeah, I'll whine, but I keep telling myself that things could always be worse.

kr32

This is me too.

Deltacornbread

Lot of wind where I live. Fortunately it is nearly always out of the south and I plan my ride accordingly. Fight the wind on the way out. Wind at my back on return. ALWAYS check the forcast though. Went out one day, 12 miles into 20mph plus wind, start back and wind changed 180 degrees. and got worse. Had to get off and walk for awhile. Could walk faster than I could ride!

D.Kinsey

The wind is my friend, the wind is my friend, the wind is my friend.......(NOT..LOL)

oilman_15106

Somehow there is always a headwind both out and back!

stapfam

Wind has been a problem over here since November but the last few weeks and Summer seems to have arrived. Temp gone up- Not much rain for the last few months so the roads have dried out- and the wind seemes to have come down a lot and not gusting.

But when it is windy-mostly it will come from one direction for that day. So I try to ride into the wind for the first part of the ride and "Hopefully" get a tailwind for the home leg. Neber seems to work though. Last weekend the forecast said a south easterly and wondered why I beat my time to the cafe. Found out that the wind was in the other direction on the return leg.

mac61

There is one spot on my route that is thick tree lined on one side and the other side of the road is a school and wide open area -- i don't care when, which direction i am going i am going into the wind. I joke that it's a tornado alley. Also riding along the river route is so nice but again can be windy although it's nice to have a good breeze when it's pushing 90 degrees here.